John Adair

John Adair (9 January 1757-19 May 1840) was a US Senator from Kentucky from 8 November 1805 to 18 November 1806 (succeeding John Breckinridge and preceding Henry Clay), Governor of Kentucky from 29 August 1820 to 24 August 1824 (succeeding Gabriel Slaughter and preceding Joseph Desha), and a member of the US House of Representatives from Kentucky's 7th district from 4 March 1831 to 3 March 1833 (succeeding John Kincaid and preceding Benjamin Hardin). He was a Democratic-Republican.

Biography
John Adair was born in Chester County, South Carolina in 1757, and he served in Thomas Sumter's militia during the American Revolutionary War, being captured at the Battle of Camden before fighting at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. He was later chosen as a delegate to the state convention to ratify the US Constitution, and he moved to Kentucky in 1786. Adair was promoted to lieutenant-colonel after fighting in the Northwest Indian War, and the popular war hero attended the ratification of the Kentucky constitution in 1792. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1793 to 1795 and in 1798, serving as Speaker from 1802 to 1803. After John Breckinridge resigned from the US Senate to serve as Attorney General, Adair was appointed to succeed him, but his implication in Aaron Burr's conspiracy to conquer parts of Mexico led to him losing for re-election. His accuser, James Wilkinson, was later forced to apologize after Adair was acquitted, but the negative publicity kept him out of politics for a decade. He went on to fight in the War of 1812, and he defended Kentucky's soldiers against Andrew Jackson's allegations of cowardice during the Battle of New Orleans, restoring his popularity. He returned to the State House in 1817, and Governor Isaac Shelby appointed him adjutant general of the state militia. In 1820, Adair was elected Governor, and he created the Bank of the Commonwealth with the goal of providing financial relief in the aftermath of the Panic of 1819. However, many of his reforms were found unconstitutional by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and he served an undistinguished term in the US House of Representatives before retiring.